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2009 BMW R1200RT - Battery Trickle Charger

Good evening,

Want to put a trickle charger on the battery, but I read some where this may not be the best solution in just taking the red (+) and black (-) and connecting. Does anyone have any guidance in this matter. Sorry for sound silly, but when I purchased the beautiful piece of art, it comes with a price in that there is allot to learn!

I use an Optimate4 on both my 2000 RTP and the 2007 R12RT. Both have powerlet plugs wired direct to the battery. Very simple plug and play and they both stay on the chargers year around. They work great.

They are CANBUS compatible but I prefer to by-pass CANBUS.

If you'd like more information, do a search for Optimate and you'll be reading for a day or so....

+1 on the Optimate4. I have only one, but have SAE connectors installed directly to the battery on my bikes and the electric start generator. I use the clips/clamps when I put it on my '65 Pontiac. I just rotate between units, a week at a time on each.

I use the NON-canbus BMW charger which is a Deltran "Smart" battery Tender rebranded.

You can find the Deltran online for as low as $42.00.

What you may be referring to as an alternative is to have the front or rear socket (or both) rewired directly to your battery. You then can plug the charger directly into the socket without any pigtails on the battery.

The convenience factor is a plus since you don't have to "futz" with the seat whenever you want to go for a ride and when you return home you just plug the charger back into the socket.

The additional advantage is that you can plug heated gear or charge a cell phone or plug other accessories into the socket by--passing the ZFE/CAnbus and not worry about the draw of the accessory.

I have my front socket wired this way to a Centech AP-2 fuse panel which provides power to all my other accessories, ie Clearwater LED's, Zumo 665, and Valentine 1 detector.

By the way I still am using the original battery and it is 4 1/2 years old and still works perfectly. Anytime the bike is parked at home, it is on the charger!

One thing on the Optimate can-bus charger (I have one..) It can wake up things on the can-bus besides the charging port (accessory plug) if you use it in can-bus mode.

If you have a GPS wired to the GPS plug on the bike, that plug is in parallel to the accessory port. Since some GPSs use an internal battery, this means the battery on the GPS is also seeing the output from the charger. I don't think the Lith-ion battery in a Zumo will be happy seeing the de-sulphate mode the Optimate initially goes through when charging your battery.

I have the BMW canbus charger too, kept it when I sold my 800S. I now use it on my R1200R. Easy to use, but I also have an older BMW branded Battery Tender from my R1100S days that I have also used through a pigtail.

The canbus charger is mounted to my garage wall, the BMW Battery Tender travels with me. Over those three bikes I so far have never experienced any charging problems or damage.

As a matter of fact when I got my R1200R new the dealer had already installed a CTEK pigtail that they used at the showroom to keep their new bikes topped off. They also sell the CTEK charger, which from my understanding is a good charger.

Optimate-4 Results

I have two Optimate-4s...one for the RT and one for Mrs. ExGMan's BMW 530xi. On the RT, I use an SAE plug connected directly to the terminals of the battery, and on the 530xi, I use the alligator clips connected to the appropriate places under the hood.

No problems with either installation. Dealers (two) told me this was the right way to handle the installations despite what it says in the RT manual. 530xi seems to like this method also.

On a trip, the Optimate stays home, as the RT is ridden every day. I got 4.5 years out of the OEM battery, but switched to an Odyssey before the latest big trip.

Probably half the BMW owners on the planet ignore that note in the manual with no issues.
Thre is always the slim chance a lightning strike on a power line might push a surge through a charger that could toast something but I've yet to hear anyone report such a problem.
But I do run my chargers off surge protected outlets to minimize that chance.
As far as risks go, its apparently pretty low
The original BMW charger meant for the outlet use had the nasty habit of shutting off in power failures and not coming back on, according to some users. If true, that would effectively make it pretty useless to me- I see minor outages too often for such a device to be useful to me. Don't know if the Optimate has that behavior or not...
I;ve used the Xtreme in several verions and locations for a few years and really like them. The pulse capability has effectively recovered for me batteries than other chargeers including those of more power and higher nominal voltage could not..

After 4 1/2 years of, in essence direct to battery, (Yes I have a fuseblock) NO problems and my battery is working perfectly still!

^^^ What is a fuseblock? I posted a similar thread on the other forum, b/c I'm really confused about this subject. Attaching a BT to a H-D was sooo much easier. H-D even supplied a pigtail connection to the battery.

Why can't BMW make life easier?

Can I not just attach the red and black alligator clips from my BTs directly to the mounted battery of my '12 RT?

I have four trickle/float chargers. Can I use one of them? Can I also use any one of my other CTEK BTs that have the cigarette lighter adapter?

Not intending to hijack this thread, but I'm really confused guys, and I did not want to create another thread about BTs

I may be able to answer SOME of your questions. On canbus systems (from my understanding) there are no fuses, thus no fuse block. The computer knows when there is too much load and shuts down the device. Thus, the "cigarette lighter" type plug is not fused, and the bike will shut it down after shutting off the engine, or if the load it too great.

This does not occur immediately, but within a minute or so after setting the ignition key to OFF. So, you need BMW's special canbus charger that talks to the bike if you use this connection. The bike knows that it is connected and keeps the connector active, it will not do this with a standard charger.

That is why our local BMW dealer (Gateway BMW) installs the CTEK pigtail to the battery directly, so they can use a CTEK charger on all their bikes, both new and used while they are on the showroom. If they do it, why can't you.

On my bike I removed the CTEK pigtail that Gateway installed a and connected a Deltran pig tail and use the Deltran/BMW charger that I used to use on my R1100S. It works great and I keep this charger with me when I am on the road. At home I use the BMW canbus charger, only because I have left over from my F800S days and it is mounted on the garage wall next to the bike.

I also use this Deltran pigtail to power my GPS, that saves the BMW connector for my electric vest. I also noticed that if the GPS was connected to the BMW connector before I start the bike, sometimes the bike's computer would shut it down. Do not know why.

That is why our local BMW dealer (Gateway BMW) installs the CTEK pigtail to the battery directly, so they can use a CTEK charger on all their bikes, both new and used while they are on the showroom. If they do it, why can't you.

On my bike I removed the CTEK pigtail that Gateway installed a and connected a Deltran pig tail and use the Deltran/BMW charger that I used to use on my R1100S. It works great and I keep this charger with me when I am on the road. Wayne

^^^Wayne, do you have a photgraph of the CTEK pigtail, and/or how did you install it on your bike? I suppose I'm visual, so I'm just a little confused...